UNO hockey scores four third period goals to defeat eighth-placed St. Cloud State | UN

UNO used a four-goal third-period barrage to finally break a spell on Friday night.

The Mavericks, winless in the weekend series opener since Dec. 3, beat eighth-seeded St. Cloud State 5-2 to 5,011 at Baxter Arena. UNO moved to 18-13 while St. Cloud fell to 15-10-3.

“It was a great game from start to finish,” Mavs coach Mike Gabinet said. “It was nice to be back home and there was great energy in the building.”

UNO had played in six of the last seven series on the road before Friday night’s series opener against the Huskies.

After a scoreless first period, Matt Miller’s power-play goal gave the Mavs a 1-0 lead with 5:25 left in the second period. He caught a cross pass from Tyler Weiss and fired a shot past Huskies goaltender David Hrenak.

This set the stage for the coasting third period which saw the teams combine for six goals. The Huskies tied the game, UNO’s Brandon Scanlin put the Mavs back in the lead and St. Cloud then tied it again 2-2 with 10:37 remaining.

UNO went ahead to stay when Jimmy Glynn scored, and rookie Ty Mueller made it 4-2 less than a minute later.

Brock Bremer scored into an empty net with 39 seconds left to cap the victory.

“We kept our cool and kept playing hockey,” Scanlin said. “I like the way we responded.”

Austin Roden, making his first start in the UNO net since Dec. 4, made 31 saves. Isaiah Saville had started the last 14 games before Friday night.

“I found out this morning that I was going to start,” Roden said. “I felt ready and I treat every week the same.”

Roden earned an early break when a Veeti Miettinen shot went off the crossbar.

“It’s a game of thumbs,” Roden said. “If that first shot goes, I think it’s a different game.”

Gabinet said it felt good to break through on Friday night.

“I think we played some good hockey, but we just didn’t see the results,” he said. “It was good to see our guys rewarded.”

The teams will play again Saturday at 7:07 p.m. at Baxter Arena.